In general I haven't had any issues with it, until now.  Flew from KSAC to KSMO via the BONJO arrival to visual rwy 3 because the sim doesn't have the RNAV approaches that Navigraph showed.  So I figure no problem I'll take a challenge and do a visual night landing in an unfamiliar airport sure.  Now, I've come down that arrival before for Burbank so not sure what happened but ATC kept changing the descent altitude between 5500-7100 feet with multiple spots in between over and over for like 5 minutes straight.  Then the real problem started.  Told to expect vectors for the visual RWY 3, but they never came.  I'm like 15 miles out to sea and they just kept telling me fly 260 every time I asked for vectors to next wp.  Finally gave up did a direct to (WT CJ4) and cancelled IFR.  I think I woke a few people up with my extremely low approach lol.  No PAPI lights so I ended up way too low like 1-200 ft AGL a mile out.  Ooops.  Unfortunately VATSIM wouldn't have helped either at this time of night 😞

It's a WIP.

You have a better chance to hit the lotto, than to have a the perfect ATC in MSFS.

Maybe VATSIM is an option.

6 minutes ago, DJJose said:

It's a WIP.

You have a better chance to hit the lotto, than to have a the perfect ATC in MSFS.

Maybe VATSIM is an option.

Yeah I'd like to do VATSIM (getting close to finally trying it) but as I said in this case it wouldn't have helped.  This time of night there's nobody on in that area controlling.

I never fly with default ATC.  Maybe it's because I know how worthless it is haha

The ATC has limitations, but it is not "worthless".

MSFS ATC?

When it works, it somewhat works.

When it doesn't, it REALLY doesn't!

31 minutes ago, Ricardo41 said:

The ATC has limitations, but it is not "worthless".

You must be using a different program.

Typically once I get the approach clearance from ATC I just switch to VFR.  The ATC loves to give you crazy altitude changes.  I'm often in the 172 and it regularly wants me to climb well over 10,000 during an approach (no terrain or anything).  You're better off using the charts and flying it yourself to be honest.  FSX was far from perfect but at least they'd usually line you up with a runway and rarely fly you into the terrain.  I've tried it in the great turbo Bonanza and I was at a much higher altitude to start (thinking I would make the ATC happy), but no, it wanted me to descent to 3000, then climb right back up again.  

The chances of it not working at all are pretty high in my experience.  

I've had more success using the copilot feature. I hope ASOBO gives the ATC the TLC it deserves.

You wan't ATC use Vatsim, Ivao or pilotedge.

1 hour ago, andyjohnston.net said:

You must be using a different program.

Despite its bugs I find the majority of the time it works just fine for me 

Honestly, if you want realistic ATC, start to use VATSIM or IVAO.  Pressing keys is not anywhere near realistic and I have no idea why people keep banging on about 'realistic' default ATC.  There is nothing realistic about it.  Get online, speak to people, as it is done in real life.  Push your boundries.   It's much more fun and will take your simming experience to a much better place

Edited October 26, 20205 yr by ErichB

I use the in game ATC nearly all my flights simply because i know im not competent enough to hop into live ATC environments yet after a break from fsx days of vatsimming. One thing you can do as a user to avoid being flopped up and down is simply opening up charts and looking at the minimum constraints on waypoints, the 320 shows this but I am sure most charts have this marked out in navigraph. ATC handles step climbing and basic IFR just fine, but it also comes down to you the user knowing what you are getting yourself into flying blind when the resources are there to assist. 

Pilot2ATC is a viable option, It works with any flight simulator.

There is also Pilotedge,

I never tried it personally,  but it came up recently on one of the zillions of aviation channels I subscribe to ... (the channel owner is a Dash 8 pilot stood down due to covid who is messing about with FS2020 out of boredom ) ..

 

 

Edited October 26, 20205 yr by Glenn Fitzpatrick